Always || Kavetham

Chapter 7

Alhaitham was dealing with the scholar who'd interrupted him and Kaveh's alone time. She suggested an idea about the facility, but of course, Alhaitham wasn't listening. Like he said earlier, Kaveh hadn't escaped his mind once this week. He was still trying to process what had just happened between him and Kaveh. Was it really real?

Whatever Alhaitham did with Kaveh a few minutes ago just made his non-stop thinking about him even worse. It was supposed to do the opposite.

A few minutes later, the scholar left the Scribe's office. Alhaitham leaned back on his chair and sighed deeply. He covered his upper face with his right hand. What would happen between them now? Would it be awkward? What was Alhaitham going to say to Kaveh when he got back from work? Thinking about that just made him more stressed

Alhaitham decided to go out and take a walk in Sumeru City to clear his mind. It was quite obvious already that Kaveh was physically — maybe emotionally too — attracted to him, but he didn't want to get too cocky about it. He took the elevator down to the ground floor.

When the Scribe was walking through the Akademiya, heading for the exit, many scholars gave him weird glares and started whispering to one another. Alhaitham sighed. It was probably the marks Kaveh gave him earlier. He didn't care anyways. The people walking past him in Sumeru City also were giving him glares. He was quite annoyed. However, the Acting Grand Sage never cared what people thought about him anyways.

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A few hours later, Alhaitham was already back at home. He was sitting in their living room, reading a book as always — and waiting for Kaveh to get home. He was still working on the project at the desert. Alhaitham didn't know what he'd say when Kaveh walked through that front door, but he still wanted Kaveh to be there with him. Why did Kaveh have to work at the desert that day? Why couldn't he just stay back and spend some time with his roommate?

And of course, a few minutes after, Kaveh came walking in through that very door, except he looked really pissed off and upset about something. He slammed the door harder than he usually did, left his keys on the table, and went straight to his room, not even greeting Alhaitham. That made Alhaitham confused — and worried. He decided to shut his book and follow Kaveh.

Alhaitham cleared his throat and knocked on Kaveh's door gently, "Kaveh, would you let me come in?" He couldn't make sense of Kaveh's response. The only thing he could hear was.. sniffling and stammering... Kaveh was crying.

Usually people wouldn't think Alhaitham was the type of person to care if his very annoying roommate was sobbing in his room and was visibly upset when he came walking in the house, but he did. He cared, obviously. And since Kaveh wasn't giving a response, Alhaitham just let himself in his room.

Kaveh was sitting on his bed, his head buried in his knees. His whole body was visibly shaking. Alhaitham could hear him mutter something beneath his breath. He was probably trying to console himself. Then he noticed Kaveh's pants were getting quite wet from the tears. Alhaitham didn't know what to do at the moment, so he did what he first thought to do — "Are you okay..?" Those three words hesitantly came out of Alhaitham's mouth. He didn't want to come off as insensitive or not caring about Kaveh's feelings. Besides, they used to be super close friends anyways.

As expected, Kaveh didn't say anything. He barely could form a word, he probably wouldn't answer Alhaitham's question — "What-... What do you want?" Well, that assumption was wrong. He didn't directly answer Alhaitham's question, though. Kaveh's voice was shaky and in stutter.

Alhaitham wanted nothing but to care for his roommate at that point. He hated seeing Kaveh in a state like this. Kaveh was usually always in a good mood when he isn't bickering with Alhaitham about the most stupid things ever. It wasn't like Kaveh to be this upset, until he was crying. Instead of a proper reply, Alhaitham sat down on the bed next to Kaveh and didn't say anything. He was at a lost for words. He was not known to be the best at comforting anyways.